Bessatsu Olympia Kyklos

Warning! The whole review might be a lie. It also contains spoilers, not that it's worth mentioning anyway.

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First of all, I have to thank mr. Yamazaki Mari (the original creator) for deciding to use a great cover of Lord Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald's theme as an opening song (a.k.a. Rossini's William Tell Overture opera). Original song music video link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8FN0xhz4Tk

Due to my Greek blood, combined with my impatience to watch the Tokyo 2020 opening ceremony, this show seemed irresistible for me. It was the real deal - it screamed "time for a sarcastic review vol 2".

The story is amazing - it's about 420 BC born statueman ... Demetrios (Jimmy in ancient greek, for those who didn't know) trying to write history. Trying to beat the damn dolphin in sculpture. Chasing dreams, dreaming of a perfect love story with Apollonia, running the marathon with Tortonia's mayor, side by side. Jimmy used Okabe's and Kurisu's academic material and managed to travel in time. He met some Spartans and Eleian guys, when he showed off the WWE skills he learnt in Smack Down vs. Raw 2007. Christopher Nolan is irritated because Interstellar's fans are now Jimmy's.

The artstyle was perfect to give the "don't take this anime seriously" vibes to the watchers, which was a fun addition to the show - appreciated. The appearance of Zeus was beautiful as well. It's also true that here in Greece, our bodies are sculptures created by the ingenious Dolphin God, because we're one of the most ancient men of culture on the planet. I daresay that the melancholic design of Tortonia's musician Honeuros was special, because it's widely known that many greek singers of this era had their balls cut, in order to keep their voices at a higher pitch.

Talking about Honeuros, the anime endings sung by him were amazing too (of course, not Kayneth tier but good). My favourite ED was the 10th one, called "Spartans are Scary". It made me and my friends realize that my country is the mother of metal music, too. Last but not least, I loved it when Honeuros wore sunglasses on his marble body (ED 20).

Character development: 10/10. Demetrios, who won approval points from all of us watchers too as the Tolympics preparations progressed, was approved my the mayor and married his daughter, Apollonia. The Spartans were scary-looking, but in the end they were cuties. Eleians proved to be true warriors, as they decided to run the marathon instead of fighting. Peace. I hope some political leaders took their lessons watching this show.

Enjoyment: I've waited to write this review since episode 1, so it was an enjoyable journey indeed.

To conclude, I'll quote Aristotle's words to express my excitement towards the continuous greatness of this two-cour hidden gem:

"Η ποιότητα δεν είναι μία πράξη. Είναι συνήθεια."
(Quality is not an act, it's a habit)

Of course I'm joking about everything you've just read.

"Δεν παίζεις με ποιότητα."
~Stefanos Tsitsipas

Olympia Kyklos is probably the best contender for dark horse of the Spring 2020 season, and maybe even all of 2020. It was a show that was heavily overshadowed by several household and hyped up titles, and as well as its short length and unique nature. This show is quite unique as it experiments with several types of animation and techniques that you don’t often see in TV, such as Claymation and use of fabric materials, so for one to enjoy a show such as this one, it requires a certain taste and a little bit of open-mindedness.

The show follows the timid and cowardly, yet ... incredibly athletic main character, Demetrios, as he aims to become a pottery painter, rather than an athlete; a position that he is bullied into by the village mayor. Over the span of the show, and with the power to travel through time to post-war Japan, he learns the joys of sport (and modern western culture in general), and eventually becomes more willing to participate in them. This show is one of the few rare instances where a clay figure of a Greek man gets more development that most shounen protagonists, sorry not sorry My Hero Academia fans.

One of my favourite aspects of this show has to be the endings. Have you ever seen a show that uses random stock videos as background visuals for their endings? They even paid for Jesus from Fiverr to record himself smiling. How amazing is that? Even when they are short, they can often be extremely funny, and are worth sticking around after every 5 minutes.

This show probably isn’t for everyone, but if you’re someone who likes the quick nature and comedic dialogue of series such as Inferno Cop and Saiki Kusuo, then you’ll get a laugh out of this. You can easily blast this one out in around 2 hours as each episode is 5 minutes long.

7/10.

Extra Olympia Kyklos is something I wanted to check out because of the mix of mediums of each episode. This anime is a relatively short viewing, about 2-2½ hours, and it's nice to sit back and watch something REALLY different for once.

The songs at the ends of episodes are funny and pleasantly informative. Just thinking about how much research was put into this show, and seeing how much footage they shot for this, just adds just shows everyone's compassion to make this show a reality.

However, maybe it's not your cup of tea, since each episode follows the same formula and possibly something that doesn't ... please your brain, but try watching a handful of episodes to appreciate how much work was put into this show.